Villa of Domitian

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The Villa of Domitian, known as Albanum Domitiani or Albanum Caesari in Latin, was a vast and sumptuous Roman villa or palace built by emperor Domitian (r. 81–96 AD). It was situated 20 km (12 mi) from Rome, high in the Alban Hills where summer temperatures are more comfortable. It faced west overlooking the sea and Ostia. To travellers on the via Appia it would have made an impressive sight. It gained a notorious reputation among ancient authors from Domitian's rule but this may have been unjust. It was one of several palaces developed by Domitian outside Rome, such as that "at Circeii" (Sabaudia). Today the remains of the villa are located mostly within the papal Villa Barberini property, the most prominent of the villas in the pontifical estate of Castel Gandolfo, and the rest in the towns of Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale. The Villa Barberini gardens are open to visitors. The remains have not been excavated and a complete plan is not available, hence the papers of Lugli in 1913-20 are still the basis of later work.

The legendary nearby capital of the Latin League, Alba Longa, was completely destroyed in the 6th c. BC becoming part of the Ager Albanus, and Latium vetus was annexed to Rome.

With progressive Roman expansion, the Alban Hills became home to numerous patrician suburban villas. In particular the remains of two large villas on the Via Appia Antica, one attributed to Publius Clodius Pulcher in Herculanum (today in the garden of the Villa Santa Caterina of the Pontifical North American College ) and the other to Pompey (Pompeo Albano, now in the municipal public park of Villa Doria ) have been found. In addition various Republican-era villas nestled on the banks of the lake and beyond. Many of these properties eventually became imperial property: by the time of Augustus, the extraordinary concentration of villas gave birth to the term Albanum Caesari.

The first imperial villa estate here was inhabited by Tiberius, then Caligula and Nero.

Domitian settled here on a permanent basis, [ citation needed ] and decided to build a new main complex to the villa in the most panoramic position towards both the sea and the lake, and featuring lavish new structures such as a garden-stadium and theatre. Probably the project was entrusted to Rabirius, architect of the Palace of Domitian on the Palatine.

Martial mentions the villa as one of Domitian's favoured resorts. Suetonius says Domitian had a passion for archery which he practised there and Pliny suggests he held boating parties on the lake.

On the death of Domitian the villa was rarely used by his imperial successors. Some modifications are dated to the second century and in particular to the eras of Trajan and Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius lived there a few days using the villa as a refuge during the riots that took place in 175 AD. [ citation needed ]

The African Emperor Septimius Severus built the grandiose legionary fortress of Castra Albana in 197 AD on the edge of the imperial properties for the Legio II Parthica. However, decline of the villa also began at this time.

The Parthian legionaries and their families established around the camp began to plunder the villa structures in order to use the material for new construction, thus giving rise to the village that would later become Albano Laziale. [ citation needed ] A second town developed on the northern edge of the imperial properties: in the Middle Ages it was called Cuccurutus and gave rise to the village Castel Gandolfo.

The Liber Pontificalis records the donation of virtually all imperial property and much of the surrounding area by Emperor Constantine I to the cathedral of St. John the Baptist (identified with the Cathedral of Albano, now named after the martyr Saint Pancras), under Pope Sylvester I (314 - 335 AD). The imperial villa of Albanum was abandoned. [ citation needed ]

The villa became the quarry of marble and building materials, similar to that of other ancient buildings: its marbles were used to build and coat the Cathedral of Orvieto in the fourteenth century. [ citation needed ]

The then feudal lords, the Savelli, gave permission to dismantle the facilities of the villa in 1321: the destruction lasted 36 days. The documents of the time outline a real business behind the dismantling of these monuments: Rodolfo Lanciani drew inspiration from these careful studies of smoke to obtain an exemplum on the reuse of the immense marble and stone material of ancient monuments of Rome and its surroundings. [ citation needed ]

Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644) was the first pontiff to holiday in Castel Gandolfo, the Papal Palace; his nephew Taddeo Barberini bought the villa in 1631 which had belonged to Scipione Visconti, and which contained the most significant contents of Domitian's Villa. The most striking views of the ruins overgrown by vegetation, such as the cryptoporticus and nymphaeum, were described by scholars and diarists from the 15th c. onwards and reproduced in engravings and paintings.

Giuseppe Lugli (1890–1967) published four volumes until 1922 which, with his topographic surveys, are still the main source of information on the villa. In 1919 he made the first archaeological survey aboard the airship "Roma ", accompanied by the director of the British School of Rome, Thomas Ashby.

In 1929 the Lateran Treaty recognised the 55 hectares of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo between the extraterritorial zone of the Holy See in Italy: most of the ruins of the villa became part of the Vatican City State, thanks to the sale of Villa Barberini to the Holy See, historically linked to the papal complex, but until then alien to it.

The Pontifical Villas were subjected to a radical reorganisation at the behest of Pope Pius XI and even the archaeological inventories, such as the cryptoporticus and the road of the nymphaea, were cleaned and incorporated.

Domitian settled here on a permanent basis, [ citation needed ] and decided to build a new main complex to the villa in the most panoramic position towards both the sea and the lake, and featuring lavish new structures such as a garden-stadium and theatre. Probably the project was entrusted to Rabirius, architect of the Palace of Domitian on the Palatine.

Martial mentions the villa as one of Domitian's favoured resorts. Suetonius says Domitian had a passion for archery which he practised there and Pliny suggests he held boating parties on the lake.

On the death of Domitian the villa was rarely used by his imperial successors. Some modifications are dated to the second century and in particular to the eras of Trajan and Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius lived there a few days using the villa as a refuge during the riots that took place in 175 AD. [ citation needed ]

The African Emperor Septimius Severus built the grandiose legionary fortress of Castra Albana in 197 AD on the edge of the imperial properties for the Legio II Parthica. However, decline of the villa also began at this time.